WAC BASKETBALL NOTEBOOKPLAYER OF THE WEEK Louisiana Tech's Trina Frierson has been named the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball Player of the Week for the week of Feb. 17-23. This is the first career WAC Player of the Week honor for the junior. Frierson is the second Lady Techster to earn the honor with Cheryl Ford earning the award the week of Jan. 27.
Frierson, a junior from Vicksburg, Miss., averaged 23.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in Louisiana Tech's two road wins at Rice and at Tulsa. Frierson scored a career-high 28 points and grabbed five rebounds in the win over Rice, helping Louisiana Tech break the Lady Owls 19-game home regular season conference-winning streak. The forward then scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds to help the Lady Techsters defeat Tulsa, 85-66.
For the week, Frierson shot 62 percent (18-for-29) from the field and 79 percent (11-for-14) from the free throw line. This season, Frierson averages 13.8 ppg and 7.6 rpg.
OTHERS NOMINATED Also nominated: Camille Woodfield, Boise State; Laura Garcia, Fresno State; Kim Lawson, Rice; and Cricket Williams, San Jose State.
Boise State's Woodfield played a key role in Boise States ability to withstand a UTEP rally to defeat the Miners in overtime, 71-65. The win is the Broncos third consecutive win and fourth-straight home victory in the last four weeks. With the win, Boise State has won five of their last six games moving them into a three-way tie for fifth place in the league standings.
Fresno State's Garcia scored 16 in a win against San Jose State. She had a season-high 17 against Hawaii on Feb. 22 and matched a career-high with five three-pointers. She added six rebounds against the Rainbow Wahine.
Rice's Lawson shot 64.3 percent for the week and was one off her career high with 16 points to lead Rice against Louisiana Tech. She dished out 12 assists over two games, while loosing the ball just twice for an assists/turnover ratio of 6.0. With her six assists against SMU, she tied the all-time Rice record with 452 in her career, equalling Dede Brantley's total from 1983-87.
San Jose State's Williams played through a sprained wrist on her shooting hand and helped the Spartans win their first conference road game of the season at Nevada. Rebounding from her season-low 10 point performance at Fresno State, she went 11-for-18 from the field (2-4 3pt att.) and was 4-4 from the foul line. She had 28 points for her WAC-leading 12th 20-point game of the season
LOUISIANA TECH WINS SECOND-STRAIGHT WAC TITLE With wins last week against Tulsa and Rice, Louisiana Tech clinched its 11th-straight regular season conference title, its second consecutive as a member of the WAC. The last time Louisiana Tech did not win the conference crown was during the 1991-92 season.
The Lady Techsters also increased its WAC record for consecutive conference wins. The Lady Techsters have now won 18-straight league games, breaking the old mark of 14 set by San Diego State (1994-95), Colorado State (1998-99) and Louisiana Tech (2001-02). The Lady Techsters have not lost since losing to No. 5 Tennessee, 60-35, on Dec. 4. Louisiana Tech's 21-game winning streak is the second longest in the country, only behind No. 1 Connecticut's record-setting 59-game winning streak.
TICKETS ON SALE FOR WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NCAA FIRST AND SECOND ROUNDS IN RUSTON The Thomas Assembly Center will once again play host to the NCAA Tournament as Louisiana Tech will be one of 16 sites for the 2003 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball first and second rounds.
Louisiana Tech and Ruston will host the first and second rounds March 23 and 25. Four teams will compete at the Ruston site.
Tickets are already on sale for the two-day event that will feature three games, two first-round contests on March 23 and a single second-round game on March 25. This year marks the first time that ESPN will televise all 63 games of the women's tournament, including the three in Ruston.
Season ticket holders can currently purchase tickets for their regular seats for the first- and second-rounds. Only ticket packages for the entire event can be purchased (no single game tickets will be sold), adult ticket packages starting at $15 while college and high school students ticket packages are $12.
For more information or to purchase tickets for the first and second rounds, call the Louisiana Tech Ticket Office at 318- 257-3631.
MARQUEE MATCHUPS With Louisiana Tech clinching the WAC regular season title, the battle continues for the remaining spots.With a pair of wins last week, Fresno State moved into second place with Tulsa and Rice tied for third. This week, Fresno State will look to extend its lead on the road against Nevada on March 2. Tulsa and Rice will both look to gain ground on the road against Hawaii and San Jose State. Hawaii, San Jose State and Boise State are all tied for fifth with 6-8 records. The Rainbow Wahine return home where they hold a stellar 11-2 record. Boise State travels to SMU and Louisiana Tech.
HOME COOKIN' In last week's WAC games, the home teams were once again 6-3. For the season, WAC teams are 83-37 (.692) on their home courts this season. Louisiana Tech also has only one home loss this season (8-1) to No. 4 Tennessee. The Lady Techsters are the only WAC team to remain undefeated at home this season during league games. Tulsa, Hawaii and Rice all have one loss at home. Nine of the 10 WAC schools have at least a .500 record at home this season, only Nevada holds a home WAC record under .500.
LOUISIANA TECH'S FORD BREAKS WAC REBOUNDING RECORD Last week, Louisiana Tech senior Cheryl Ford set a new WAC single- season record for rebounds in league games. Ford has 209 rebounds in 15 WAC games (the old record was 188 by Ford last year).
TWO EARN VERIZON ACADEMIC AWARDS Rices Kim Lawson was named to the Verizon Academic all-District VI first team, as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America, Thursday. Nevada's Kate Smith was named to the all-District VIII second team.
Lawson, a senior point guard owns a 3.79 grade point average in economics, psychology and managerial studies. Currently, she leads the WAC in assists/turnover ratio at 2.2 and is third in the league in assists with a 4.6 average. Lawson ranks second on Rices all-time assists list with 440 career assists, and needs just 13 more to become the all-time Rice leader.
Smith is fifth all-time in free throws made in the WAC with 452. The senior speech pathology major has a GPA of 3.56. Smith is third in the WAC in scoring, averaging 15.0 ppg.
To be eligible, student-athletes must hold sophomore athletic and academic standing with a 3.20 GPA or better, and must have competed in at least 50 percent of the teams games. District VI represents all NCAA division I schools in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Student-athletes are chosen by members of CoSIDA in each district.
NON-CONFERENCE MARK WAC teams are 53-45 (.541) in non-conference games. The WAC is 3-11 against non-conference teams that are ranked or were ranked in the top 25. Louisiana Tech is 2-1 after defeating then-No. 7 Texas Tech and then-No. 25 New Mexico, but falling to No. 5 Tennessee. Tulsa is 0-4 after falling to then-No. 24 Mississippi State, then-No. 22 Oklahoma, No. 13 Arkansas and No. 1 Duke. SMU has a win over Oklahoma and a loss to Boston College.
IN THE POLLS Louisiana Tech is the only WAC team ranked in both the Associated Press and the ESPN polls. This week, the Lady Techsters moved up to their highest ranking of the season, No. 6, in the AP poll, remaining in the top 10 for the fifth-straight week.
WAC ROUNDUP Boise State junior Camille Woodfield recorded career highs for rebounds (15), free throws made (9) and free throw attempts (11) in a win against UTEP. She shot 67 percent from the floor hitting 2-of-3 field goal attempts and shot 82 percent from the charity stripe making 9-of-11 foul shots. Her three assists gives her 275 career assists moving her to within seven of tying for fourth on the Boise State all-time career assists chart. She was also on the hardwood for 40 of the 45 minutes.
Fresno States 54-51 victory over Hawaii on Feb. 22 assured the team of its first winning season since the 1996-97 campaign when the club finished 14-13 ledger. The Bulldogs are guaranteed to finish with a final record above .500 regardless of the outcome in its final three regular season games. Prior to 1996-97, the Bulldogs had accumulated a 51-92 record over the last five years. After winning just nine games last year for its lowest victory total since the 1981-82 season, it has been a different story for the Bulldogs in 2002-03. With its 71-48 win over Nevada on Feb. 1, Fresno State reached the 10-win mark for the first time since the 2000-01 campaign.
Hawaii fell to 6-8 in league games this season with road losses to Nevada and Fresno State. The Rainbow Wahine are still in search of their first road win of the season, holding an 0-7 road record. This week, Hawaii returns home to the friendly confines of the Stan Sheriff Center. The Rainbow Wahine will take on Tulsa and Rice, both 8-6. Hawaii looks to break a three-game losing streak.
Louisiana Tech extended its winning streak to 21 games and its WAC-record regular season conference winning streak to 18 games. Senior center Cheryl Ford averaged 21.5 points and 14.0 rebounds in the two wins this week over Rice and Tulsa. Louisiana Tech finished the road portion of its regular season conference schedule 9-0 in WAC play. Junior forward Amisha Carter started the year hitting only 12 of 31 free
throws (39 percent). However, she has now made 23 of her last 28 (82 percent). Junior forward Trina Frierson is averaging 24.3 points a game in her last three games while shooting 65 percent (29-45).
Nevada senior Kate Smith led all Nevada scorers with 18, while tallying six boards in a loss to San Jose State on Feb. 22. The 18 points bring Smith's career tally to 1,893 making her the second all-time leading scorer in school history, male or female. Smith jumped past the men's leader of Edgar Jones (1975-79) who had 1,877. Now the top two scorers in school history, for either program, are women, with Chris Starr (1982-86) leading the way with 2,356.
Rice freshman Amber Cunningham made her first career starts and responded by averaging 8.5 ppg while shooting .500 for the week. With 12 assists last week, senior Kim Lawson brought her career total to 452, tying the Rice all-time record. Last week, the Lady Owls struggled in the first half of both games before coming alive in the second. Rice averaged 22 ppg on 31.9 percent (15-47) shooting in the opening 20 before turning it on the second for 43.5 ppg on 50.0 percent (35-70).
San Jose State won its first WAC game on the road, 77-52, at Nevada. The Spartans had lost six-straight road games. Junior forward Tatiana Taylor had 14 points and five assists. The Spartans won both of this seasons scheduled conference games against the Wolf Pack. Nevada recently ended an 11-game losing streak and won three of their last four games. The game went back-and-forth through most of the first half, with the Spartans beginning to take a definitive lead in the last five minutes of the period. Beginning at 3:18 left in the first half, San Jose State scored the last nine points, to take a 37-27 halftime lead.
SMU has allowed at least one opponent a double-double in eight of its last 10 games. Freshman Sarah Davis collected two more blocks against Rice and set a freshman season record with 35 blocks. The previous record was 34 blocks by Diana Wilt (1985-86 season). SMUs five consecutive losses is the most this season and the most since the 1999-2000 season, as SMU strung together five losses during non-conference play. The most recent consecutive conference loss string of five games took place during the 1990-91 season when SMU lost its last five Southwest Conference contests (including one SWC tournament game) to close out the season.
UTEP has been unstoppable from the free throw line over the past two games. During this span the Miners are shooting 95.5 percent (21-of-22). The Miners shot 100.0 percent (8-of-8) against Tulsa on Feb. 15 and then 92.9 percent (13-of-14) against Boise State on Feb. 22. The performance at Boise State was its best showing (with 10 attempts or more) since Feb. 5, 1998, when the Miners shot 92.9 percent (13-of-14) against Colorado State. UTEP currently has a four-game stretch of shooting over 40 percent. During this time, the Miners are shooting 44.1 percent (100-of-227).
Tulsa senior Alyssa Shriver recorded three blocked shots against SMU to break the school record for single-season blocks with 79. Shriver broke her own school mark that she set last season with 77 rejections in 30 games. In just two seasons in a Tulsa uniform, she owns the school's career record (160), single season record and single-game mark of 14 set against Louisiana Tech a year ago. Shriver ranks fifth among the WAC's career leaders. Tulsa senior Allison Curtin surpassed 2,100 points for her career against Louisiana Tech and also became the school's single season leader for field goals with 196.
2003 WILLIAMS WAC TOURNAMENT The 2003 Williams WAC Tournament will be held March 11-15 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Okla. Both the women and men compete during the same week. On the womens side, the seven, eight, nine and 10 seeded teams will play on Tuesday, March 11. The remaining eight teams will all play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 12. The top seed faces the winner of the Tuesday eight-nine game. The No. 2 seed faces the winner of the seven-10 game, the No. 3 seed meets the No. 6 seed, while No. 4 is against No. 5. The winners will play in the semifinals on Friday and the championship game will be Saturday afternoon.
WILLIAMS IS TOURNAMENT SPONSOR For the third year in a row, Williams will be the WACs tournament sponsor. Williams, through its subsidiaries, connects businesses to energy, delivering innovative, reliable products and services. Williams information is available at www.williams.com.